Brian did not have to rehearse until 3 pm today so we headed out for a couple hours with Daddy before his work. Brian had not been to the Piazza del Popolo so that was our first stop. To the delight of our children, there were great bubbles.

Then we went near the Spanish Steps and ate some pizza. Brian and I shared a very yummy mushroom slice, I would kind of like some more right now. It is funny because I came to Italy when I was 17 with my family and my mom remembers getting the fold over pizza by the Spanish Steps in Rome on that trip too. We were robbed on that trip so that is my main memory of Rome from years ago. (It is a crazy story, my Dad was pick pocketed in the train station, an on off duty police man saw it all happen and missed his train home to help us. The pick pocketer was in jail the next day but sadly he handed off my Dad's wallet so still a big problem, since he even got my Dad's passport. So nice to have the help of a stranger.)

A view of the Spanish Steps from a few blocks away. It was crazy warm here today, like in the high 50's so pretty much everyone was outside.

After Brian had to go to work, I headed back across the river to the Castel Sant' Angelo as there is a small playground in the back. We walked home through Vatican City and had such lovely end of the day light. (No photos, I was just trying to get home before Jane fell asleep. The kids sleep has been very off but they were both asleep before 9pm tonight, yay! Jane has been staying up until about 11:30 pm so this is very exciting to me.)

Amazingly, Jane with her finger in her mouth and not her nose. It was a good Saturday. We are very much in love with Rome.

Last night I took the metro in to meet Brian after his rehearsal and we wandered down to the Piazza Navona. There was a big fair going on for La Befana and it was the last night. We ate a donut bigger than my head, saw a drag Befana, rode the carousel, AND got gelato. It was a night of too many treats. And Befana found our kids last night and left some candy in their shoes so the first things they ate this morning was Kinder eggs. The toys in the eggs are really great (we seem to remember Cracker Jack toys being a lot better in the olden days than they are now). Colin even got a little USB in one of his eggs that has some little computer games and activities.

Colin was very tired last night but perked up to see the fair. It had rained on and off all day. The rain stayed away while we were looking around, but started again on our walk home. Colin wanted to go back to the fair tonight. I do wonder how all this travel is shaping his experience and world view.

In other news, this is what we had for breakfast yesterday, courtesy of Mercato Trionfale, the amazing open market a few blocks away from us. Brian's brother Dan will recognize the little package above. It is a Burrata- the pinnacle of the fresh mozzarella experience. The few outlets in the states that supply this cheese charge upwards of $20 to $25 for the serving size pictured above (I got it for about $6). Since it is a southern Italian (Pugliese) specialty, it is not available every day in the market, and I think the vendors were tired of Brian asking for it. When it came in, they saw him coming and immediately said, "Burrata?"
It was consumed with this delightful bread (Filone del Contadina, wild yeast with whole grain) and some Blood Oranges on the side. The citrus here is spectacular right now.

Let me explain Burrata. Mozzarella di Buffala is pulled into a thin sheet, than filled with an unbelievably buttery mozzarella and cream hybrid called straciatella and tied up in a little purse. The interior is a spreadable consistency with a bit of stringyness and the whole thing is basically the embodiment of fresh dairy goodness. Trader Joe's sells a domestic version of this, and it is a noble effort, but now that we've had the real thing we won't be able to go back.

There are not words.

We made it to our Church on Sunday and the congregation we went to only had older kids. We were not aware we are to dress out kids in all black. Also, shiny black puffy coats are very much de moda here, like the guy to the left of Colin. I wish they had issued us new black shiny coats at the airport when we arrived. These are just photos from Brian's cell phone but I find them very funny.

Jane liked sitting with the big boys.

Since Brian is gone at work for a good portion of the day, the kids and I are settling into our something of a routine. We go on walks and go out to play. Thankfully on our first day here I noticed something of a park between these buildings that is not too far from our apartment. And there is a direct view of St. Peters from where we play.

With the kids one day I walked to the Piazza del Popolo. I just had our little camera and somehow had the white balance set not for outdoor light. So here are just a couple of quick shots.

This walk should not have taken quite as long as it did but sometimes it feels like I have to stop every 5 feet to take care of someone. Oh well, they are cute kids.

Since we did not play at the Piazza del Popolo, we went back to the little park we know. We have not found so many playgrounds in Rome but we met a very nice family who took us to a great park yesterday. (Sadly, no photos). The family has two kids our kids' ages so they know the family friendly things to do in Rome. Yay!

Not really a flattering photo, the kids were being a little crazy when I took this photo, Jane with Nutella face and Colin, I don't know. All I remember was it was an evening of high needs.

Wandered over here last night.

We intended it to be a sleepy walk. Colin fell asleep quickly in the back but woke up at home and Jane never slept. What fun would parenting be if your kids were predictable?

Below, a view of St. Peters from the river.

And there were real tears from Jane when we came upon this as it finished the last ride of the night. We will be back.

Welcome 2011! On New Years Eve we went over to Trevi Fountain. We are very much looking forward to many of the tourists going home so we can throw some coins in for luck.
To celebrate the New Year we ate some really bad food. We realized too late NEVER to eat at a place where they speak English to you! We got sucked in because we were hungry and the place looked easy with a stroller and kids. Brian said everyone working there should be ashamed because they know they are serving bad food. I have had a couple other bad experiences this week, we will need to try much harder.

Last night we also walked around the Pantheon but we did not get photos yet. Not too impressive though, it is only from 125 AD. Our friend sent us a funny message saying how sorry she is for us to spend time in a city that is all ruins. We do very much have the luxury of staying for a long while so we will get back in times that are not the New Years holiday. And the actual New Year at midnight sounded like a war zone. We are in a quiet little neighborhood but it was anything but quiet. Our kids were up too late and Colin fell asleep about 10 minutes before midnight and slept through all the noise.

Headed over to the Colosseum today, dating back to 80 AD. It was closed for the holiday so we will head back another time. It was supposed to be sunny today but no, gray and light rain. Oh well.

(below) The Forum was also closed but we were able to peek.

Jane loves to find little places to sit down.

The Arch of Constantine.

And below, Jane running away.

We arrived on Monday after a (thankfully) non-eventful travel day. We were able to fly right to Paris and then onto Rome which was pretty great. We were first looking at flights through NYC and are SO glad we could bypass the weather mess on the East Coast. The kids did quite well on the very long trip and two of our fellow passengers commented an how good they were. By the second night here they slept through the night, but the first night Jane was up from about 1am-5am, it was great.

Our flat for our month in Rome is just up the street from St. Peters so I have walked there everyday this week except today. We went more into Central Rome tonight since Brian had the night off. He had last night off too and since Brian had yet to go to the Vatican on this trip, we headed over last night.

We put the kids in jammies for a sleepy walk. Wish we had done it tonight, it is after 11pm and they are still chatting and playing in their beds. It is New Years so maybe they would wake up from the fireworks anyway.

We love that it is still Christmas here and are getting ready for Befana on January 6! Our little market sells Befana stocking, we should maybe get a couple.

This is what I look like walking around Rome with my beloved stroller and two kids. I think I was out with the stroller and kids for about 5 hours yesterday. And today we took the metro into Rome but just walked home several miles.

And below, one more time to talk about my stroller (I'll try and save some of it for a phil&teds blog in the future). This is a shot if the street we live on. A side by side stroller would not even fit on the sidewalk to get to our flat, and it can be a busy road. Take that any side by side stroller! The fat air tires are great for jumping curbs, cobblestone, and getting out of cars' way. Drivers do not seem to like to stop for pedestrians, we will try to stay safe.

Hard to believe Christmas has come and gone already. It was a crazy month with Brian gone about 10 days and lots of visa drama. (He was told on December 17th that he would need a visa which prompted an emergency trip so San Fransisco on Dec. 19th and then a fight between the opera and the Consulate and Brian without a passport only days before we were to travel. Hmm. . . if we had known he needed one when we heard the job came through this all could have been done by mail but it all finally did work out. Kind of funny, Brian also needed a visa for Japan but that process was totally organized and drama free.)

So hello from Italy, but first, Christmas.

Fun with the Christmas Crackers.

Colin as Joseph and Mallory as Mary.

Things went slightly better than last year.

Christmas morning our kids would have been totally happy just with their stocking goodies (not a ton of candy but fun things like cans of root beer and an entire box of Wheat Thins. Our kids love Wheat Thins, and they have stocking big enough to accomidate! But they also love over sized lollipops.)

The Christmas carnage. We had such a pretty tree this year.

My mom got us a new fire pit so we had a Christmas outside fire. We only had mini marshmallows that do not roast so well. Brian also brought out the guitar to sing some carols.

Jane is still pretty scary with an open flame.